The present invention relates to a computer-based teaching system employing networking and computer assisted interactive techniques for enhancing a teacher's efficiency and effectiveness in a classroom. As will be discussed below, among its various attributes, the inventive system enables a teacher: (1) to monitor progress of a class more closely during each classroom session, and over each section of a course, than has been possible in the past; (2) to stimulate active participation by all students in a class; (3) to automate rollkeeping and the giving and grading of quizzes and homework; and (4) to utilize instructional videos and associated peripheral hardware interactively with the system. The invention thus integrates computers into the mainstream of the learning and grading process at educational institutions, with significant benefit to the classroom environment, including facilitated knowledge of student performance, and associated savings in routine paperwork.
There have been numerous techniques devised for enabling a teacher more easily to convey information and understanding to a class, and ultimately to relieve the teacher, to the greatest extent possible, of a number of the burdens associated with conveying that information to the class. Various electronically-based techniques have been implemented, but these have proved to be quite limiting or otherwise disadvantageous. In one sense, the techniques have been limiting in that interaction between the student and the teacher may be limited to responses to multiple-choice type questions, or to questions requiring only numerical answers. Examples of such systems include those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,656,243; 3,694,935; 3,716,929; and 4,004,354. Such systems have been further limiting in that they have not provided any way of keeping accurate, detailed records for individual students for the duration of a given class.
Other more recently-proposed systems have taken advantage of advances in technology to interconnect a number of students in the same classroom, or in different classrooms, for purposes of gathering information, or facilitating access to instructional programs. One example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,174, which enables students to download instructional programs from a central computer, which acts as a sort of file server. In this system, the student, rather than the teacher, has control over system access and operation.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,717, which discloses detailed networking structure for connecting conventional personal computers. However, there is at most only limited teacher-student interaction contemplated. Rather, this system is directed more toward providing, at a central location, an instructional program which may be downloaded locally so that students can learn various types of computer programs.
Yet another example of a conventional student response system is U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,120. This system is intended to collect data of a limited nature (e.g. responses to multiple-choice questions) from a number of classrooms. There is no provision of statistical analysis to inform the teacher of how well a class is learning the concepts being conveyed. This feature also is absent from the other two just-mentioned U.S. patents.
One of the important services an electronically-based classroom teaching system can provide is to enable a teacher to monitor progress of the class and of individual students, and to focus effort in areas where students seem to have the most trouble understanding the concepts being taught. A electronic classroom teaching aid also should assist a teacher in breaking through the reluctance that students have to participating actively in class. Some of this reluctance derives from basic shyness, or fear of seeming different, or fear of seeming superior (or less intelligent, for that matter). Enabling students to respond individually and confidentially by electronic means to questions posed by the teacher can help to break through some of the shyness or reluctance a student otherwise may exhibit.
However, this confidentiality by itself does not suffice to satisfy all students, at all levels, in all teaching situations. Sometimes active participation and motivation can be encouraged better by combining students in small teams (by twos or threes) and requiring that they respond to questions as a team. In this way, students can learn from the insights and difficulties of their peers. The teacher can infer class progress from the responses of the teams.
In still other situations it is important to enable students to proceed, if possible, in a self-paced manner, to learn concepts conveyed in the classroom, while still having the teacher present to monitor the situation and to concentrate in areas where the class seems to be having difficulty. Here, it is important that the interactive electronic classroom system advise the teacher, as soon as possible, what percentage of the class grasps the concepts being taught.
Certain of the above-mentioned U.S. patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,354, describe systems which provide the teacher with a readout of the percentage of students answering a question correctly. However, the types of questions still are limited to multiple choice, and do not provide a vehicle for further discussion and exploration of concepts which appear to be difficult to grasp.
It would be desirable to have a system in which students could respond to a wider range of questions, with different types of responses required (for example, a narrative response of limited length). It also would be desirable to enable a student to take a quiz at his or her own pace, with questions requiring answers other than multiple choice or simple numerical answers. Further, it is desirable for students to be able to run short didactic programs which are designed to enable students to experiment immediately and actively with the concepts which are being taught in that class, and which simultaneously give feedback to the teacher. Those students who have succeeded in a task may be assigned more advanced work while others may receive remedial instruction. It follows that different portions of a class should be able to work at one time, on different tasks, under control and supervision of the teacher. Such a system would be in complete contrast to conventional computer-based instruction which has tended to have the effect of replacing, rather than assisting teachers.
In summary, it is desirable to have a system which simply enables a teacher to teach better by encouraging active learning in the classroom, by providing rapid feedback on students' understanding, and which simultaneously relieves a teacher of certain burdens in routine paperwork that otherwise would have to be assumed, and which otherwise would take important time away from the teacher. It further would be desirable for such a system to be combinable with various electronic devices (such as video or educational resource materials stored on optical discs) to provide information to students through additional media which again do not replace a teacher, but rather which augment what a teacher can offer alone.